From the moment the GB Cycling Embassy was founded, we have consistently focused on the critical importance of safe, attractive and comfortable environments to cycle in. Those kinds of environments can take different forms – protected cycleways on busy roads, genuinely quiet routes shared with low levels of motor traffic, or stand-alone cycle paths, away from the road network. But those environments have to be in place before we can realistically expect ordinary people to cycle for day-to-day trips. There really is no substitute.

This is a message we have pushed hard within UK cycle campaigning, a message that was embodied in London Cycling Campaign’s 2012 Go Dutch campaign and now in the Space for Cycling campaign, as well as in other national campaigns like Pedal on Parliament. It’s a message that is now
mainstream.

This is of course a critical issue that the Ue industry needs to engage with too. Without those safe and attractive environments, the market for cycles and cycling-related products will inevitably be limited to a small minority of the population – those who are currently willing and able to cycle on motor traffic-dominated roads. The cycling industry needs to capture the enormous untapped market represented by the large numbers of people who are interested but concerned – interested in cycling for everyday trips, but put off by the kind of cycling on offer.

Evidence suggests cycle sales per capita correlate strongly with the use of cycling as a main mode, and, just as significantly, the amount of money people are willing to spend on cycles also increases in countries where cycling is a serious mode of transport. In the Netherlands, the average cycle price is nearly three times higher than in the UK. People are willing to spend more money on cycles, and related equipment, when they know that their purchases will be useful in their daily lives.